1. Neuroscience

Adult-born granule cells mature through two functionally distinct states

  1. János Brunner
  2. Máté Neubrandt
  3. Susan Van-Weert
  4. Tibor Andrási
  5. Felix B Kleine Borgmann
  6. Sebastian Jessberger
  7. János Szabadics  Is a corresponding author
  1. Institute of Experimental Medicine, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungary
  2. University of Zurich, Switzerland
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.03104
Share this article
Cite this article
  1. János Brunner
  2. Máté Neubrandt
  3. Susan Van-Weert
  4. Tibor Andrási
  5. Felix B Kleine Borgmann
  6. Sebastian Jessberger
  7. János Szabadics
(2014)
Adult-born granule cells mature through two functionally distinct states
eLife 3:e03104.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.03104
  2. Download BibTeX
  3. Download .RIS

Abstract

Adult-born granule cells (ABGCs) are involved in certain forms of hippocampus-dependent learning and memory. It has been proposed that young but functionally integrated ABGCs (4-weeks-old) specifically contribute to pattern separation functions of the dentate gyrus due to their heightened excitability, whereas old ABGCs (>8-weeks-old) lose these capabilities. Measuring multiple cellular and integrative characteristics of 3-10 weeks old individual ABGCs, we show that ABGCs consist of two functionally distinguishable populations showing highly distinct input integration properties (one group being highly sensitive to narrow input intensity ranges while the other group linearly reports input strength) that are largely independent of the cellular age and maturation stage, suggesting that 'classmate' cells (born during the same period) can contribute to the network with fundamentally different functions. Thus, ABGCs provide two temporally overlapping but functionally distinct neuronal cell populations, adding a novel level of complexity to our understanding of how life-long neurogenesis contributes to adult brain function.

Article and author information

Author details

  1. János Brunner

    Institute of Experimental Medicine, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  2. Máté Neubrandt

    Institute of Experimental Medicine, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  3. Susan Van-Weert

    Institute of Experimental Medicine, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  4. Tibor Andrási

    Institute of Experimental Medicine, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  5. Felix B Kleine Borgmann

    University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  6. Sebastian Jessberger

    University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  7. János Szabadics

    Institute of Experimental Medicine, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary
    For correspondence
    szabadics.janos@koki.mta.hu
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

Ethics

Animal experimentation: All experimental procedures were performed in accordance with the ethical guidelines of the Institute of Experimental Medicine Protection of Research Subjects Committee (permission: 22.1/1760/003/2009) and were approved by the local virus safety committee.

Reviewing Editor

  1. Gary L Westbrook, Vollum Institute, United States

Publication history

  1. Received: April 16, 2014
  2. Accepted: July 23, 2014
  3. Accepted Manuscript published: July 24, 2014 (version 1)
  4. Version of Record published: August 13, 2014 (version 2)

Copyright

© 2014, Brunner et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

Metrics

  • 3,154
    Page views
  • 310
    Downloads
  • 28
    Citations

Article citation count generated by polling the highest count across the following sources: Scopus, Crossref, PubMed Central.

Download links

A two-part list of links to download the article, or parts of the article, in various formats.

Downloads (link to download the article as PDF)

Open citations (links to open the citations from this article in various online reference manager services)

Cite this article (links to download the citations from this article in formats compatible with various reference manager tools)

  1. János Brunner
  2. Máté Neubrandt
  3. Susan Van-Weert
  4. Tibor Andrási
  5. Felix B Kleine Borgmann
  6. Sebastian Jessberger
  7. János Szabadics
(2014)
Adult-born granule cells mature through two functionally distinct states
eLife 3:e03104.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.03104

Categories and tags

Research organism

Further reading

    1. Evolutionary Biology
    2. Neuroscience

    Evolutionary convergence of a neural mechanism in the cavefish lateral line system

    Elias T Lunsford et al.
    Research Article Updated

    Animals can evolve dramatic sensory functions in response to environmental constraints, but little is known about the neural mechanisms underlying these changes. The Mexican tetra, Astyanax mexicanus, is a leading model to study genetic, behavioral, and physiological evolution by comparing eyed surface populations and blind cave populations. We compared neurophysiological responses of posterior lateral line afferent neurons and motor neurons across A. mexicanus populations to reveal how shifts in sensory function may shape behavioral diversity. These studies indicate differences in intrinsic afferent signaling and gain control across populations. Elevated endogenous afferent activity identified a lower response threshold in the lateral line of blind cavefish relative to surface fish leading to increased evoked potentials during hair cell deflection in cavefish. We next measured the effect of inhibitory corollary discharges from hindbrain efferent neurons onto afferents during locomotion. We discovered that three independently derived cavefish populations have evolved persistent afferent activity during locomotion, suggesting for the first time that partial loss of function in the efferent system can be an evolutionary mechanism for neural adaptation of a vertebrate sensory system.

    1. Neuroscience
    2. Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine

    Generation of vascularized brain organoids to study neurovascular interactions

    Xin-Yao Sun et al.
    Research Article Updated

    Brain organoids have been used to recapitulate the processes of brain development and related diseases. However, the lack of vasculatures, which regulate neurogenesis and brain disorders, limits the utility of brain organoids. In this study, we induced vessel and brain organoids, respectively, and then fused two types of organoids together to obtain vascularized brain organoids. The fused brain organoids were engrafted with robust vascular network-like structures and exhibited increased number of neural progenitors, in line with the possibility that vessels regulate neural development. Fusion organoids also contained functional blood–brain barrier-like structures, as well as microglial cells, a specific population of immune cells in the brain. The incorporated microglia responded actively to immune stimuli to the fused brain organoids and showed ability of engulfing synapses. Thus, the fusion organoids established in this study allow modeling interactions between the neuronal and non-neuronal components in vitro, particularly the vasculature and microglia niche.

    1. Neuroscience
    2. Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine

    Brain Organoids: Getting the right cells

    Bilal Cakir, In-Hyun Park
    Insight

    Fusing brain organoids with blood vessel organoids leads to the incorporation of non-neural endothelial cells and microglia into the brain organoids.